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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26622529">Migraines and Mystery Potions</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/gossamerstarsxx/pseuds/saiyanshewolf'>saiyanshewolf (gossamerstarsxx)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Pour Out Your Heart [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Stardew Valley (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Arguing, Awkwardness, F/M, Headaches &amp; Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, Medication, Misunderstandings, One Shot, One Shot Collection, Painkillers, Pre-Relationship, Tattoos</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:48:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,597</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26622529</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/gossamerstarsxx/pseuds/saiyanshewolf</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Shane heads toward the dock to drink, only to find Zane, Pelican Town's less-than-friendly new farmer, passed out nearby. After waking her he discovers that she's suffering the side effects of a wizard potion...side effects that are about to get much worse.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Shane/Female Player (Stardew Valley), Shane/Player (Stardew Valley)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Pour Out Your Heart [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1936729</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>73</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Migraines and Mystery Potions</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><b>Notes</b>: I started playing Stardew Valley and it took me .05 seconds to fall in love with the suicidal alcoholic chicken man. Look, I have a type, all right? In all seriousness, I love Shane. A lot. His is one of the most realistic depictions of depression I've ever seen in a video game, and I appreciate that. I have a hard time playing SDV without marrying him over and over again. I also can't play any video game without kind of fudging the canon around to my liking, so that's kind of where this came from. I guess maybe my migraines had something to do with it too.</p><p><b>Warnings</b>: Mild nudity; minor drug use, but it's a) prescription and b) necessary; very vague allusions to sex</p><p>
  <a href="https://saiyanshewolf.tumblr.com/post/644965951796838400/the-background-was-an-asset-on-csp-and-yes-its">Here's an illustration I did for this fic!</a>
</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h1>1.</h1><p>"Zane? Zane! Wake up!"</p><p>She opens her eyes by degrees. It's dark out, but the full moon is bright enough to make her head throb.</p><p>"Dammit, Zane, say something!"</p><p>That voice...she knows that voice.</p><p>"Shane?" Zane shifts up onto her elbows, squinting at her surroundings. "Where...where the hell am I?"</p><p>"You're in the middle of the damn forest," he snaps. "I found you passed out in the bushes near the dock when I came out to drink. What the hell have <span class="u">you</span> been drinking?"</p><p>Her shoulders tense.</p><p>Drinking? Had she been...?</p><p>No.</p><p>
  <em>Not like that, anyway.</em>
</p><p>"It was...something the wizard gave me," she mumbles, shuddering at the memory of undulating trees in impossible shades of green, and tiny, apple-shaped spirits chirping in high-pitched gibberish that still somehow made sense.</p><p>"Rasmodius?!" Shane says, incredulous. "You were drinking with <span class="u">Rasmodius</span>?"</p><p>"Kind of." She reaches up to adjust her ponytail out of habit and realizes that her hair is loose, falling over her shoulders and down to the ground in a cascade of tangles and snarls. "Hey, did you...?"</p><p>"It was down when I found you, tangled up in the bushes," he grumbles, fumbling with something on his wrist. "Here, I keep one on me for Jas."</p><p>Zane takes the green hair tie from him with shaking hands, but as soon as she lifts her arms above the level of her heart her vision grows black around the edges.</p><p>"Shit." She drops her arms, swaying even though she is sitting down. "I really wasn't expecting it to do me like this."</p><p>"You got drunk with a wizard," Shane retorts. "What else did you expect?"</p><p>"I'm from the city, all right?" she sighs, shoving her long hair back from her face. "Tech has kind of replaced wizards and magic outside of places like this, I'm not used to it."</p><p>"I'm from the city too," he says, "And you couldn't have paid me to drink with a wizard even when I first got here."</p><p>"It was less drinking with him and more just...me drinking something he made." Once again she tries to pull her hair back; the dizziness returns, so intense that she drops her arms and squeezes her eyes against the way the ground seems to lurch and dip.</p><p>"Something he made?!" Shane's voice is sharp with disbelief and frustration. "What the hell was it, wizard moonshine?"</p><p>"Potion?" Zane shrugs, unwilling to risk opening her eyes. She pushes her straggling bangs back from her forehead and tries to maneuver the rest of her hair behind her shoulders, but it is too thick and too tangled. It catches on her fingers.</p><p>"So you just drank some mystery wizard potion and thought it would end well. Right. Great."</p><p>Zane opens her eyes long enough to glare at him, still struggling with her hair.</p><p>"Could you save the lecture for when the world isn't spinning like a merry-go-round?" She hisses. "Yes, I drank the damn mystery potion, and for your information it did what I needed it to do. It just...had some side effects."</p><p>Rolling her eyes, she attempts once more to wrestle her hair into a ponytail; the moment she lifts her arms, a wave of dizziness washes over her and she reels, clutching the grass beneath her as if she might fall off the world.</p><p>"Side...!" Shane cuts off his outburst, scrubbing a hand over his mouth and shaking his head in disbelief. "Ugh. Yoba, just...give me that." He pulls the hair tie off her wrist and moves to kneel behind her.</p><p>"What are you...?"</p><p>"Be still," he mumbles, "Your hair's a mess."</p><p>Zane falls silent, leaning forward onto her knees and hiding her face in her arms; maybe the dizziness will fade if she keeps her eyes closed long enough.</p><p><em>He'll just yank it back into a low ponytail or bun or something, </em>she thinks with some irritation. <em>I'll never be able to get the damn hair tie out.</em></p><p>Yet as the minutes tick by, Zane realizes that he isn't doing either of those things. He combs through her hair with gentle fingers, section by section, working out snarls, pulling out twigs and leaves and at least one confused moth.</p><p>
  <em>When was the last time anyone did my hair...?</em>
</p><p>A pleasant tingling sensation spreads over her scalp and down the nape of her neck, tightening her skin to gooseflesh. He never pulls, never snatches, and Zane soon drifts off, lulled by the repetitive movements of his hands.</p><p>By the time Shane speaks again, Zane has lost track of time.</p><p>"Good grief, your hair is long." He sighs, sitting down beside her on the grass and flexing his fingers. "Better?"</p><p>Zane lifts her head; her heartbeat pounds in her ears, and when she opens her eyes, she takes longer than she'd like to focus.</p><p>
  <em>Not good.</em>
</p><p>She swallows hard and reaches for her ponytail with shaking hands. To her surprise, what she finds is a braid - one long, gathered braid, all the way down her back, the tail end of it coiled on the ground.</p><p>Shocked, she glances at Shane and asks, "How...?"</p><p>He rolls his eyes and looks away.</p><p>"Jas had hair down to her waist for ages. Only cut it in the past year. Vincent got bubblegum in it by accident."</p><p>Zane flinches at the thought, clutching her braid. "Was she upset?"</p><p>Shane shrugs. "For a little while, until she realized short hair meant it didn't get as tangled. I have no idea how you deal with yours."</p><p>Zane shrugs. "I usually don't let it get tangled up in bushes, so there's that."</p><p>"Yeah, about that." He cuts his eyes at her. "What the hell did Rasmodius give you? You look like hell."</p><p>"Charming." Zane wrinkles her nose, sneering and trying to ignore the jagged rainbow aura that has bloomed along the edges of her vision. "I needed...I needed help understanding something, that's all."</p><p>Shane cocks an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you drank wizard potion for some kind of weird spiritual clarity reasons. I'd kind of expect that from Emily, but you don't seem the type."</p><p>"I wouldn't call it clarity. Sanity, maybe." Zane sighs and shakes her head, hugging herself; it's a warm night, but the faint breeze carries more than a hint of the upcoming autumn. "Look, you wouldn't believe me if I told you, all right? Just...trust me. If I hadn't gone to the wizard, I'd have lost my mind."</p><p>Shane doesn't seem appeased.</p><p>"You're shivering," he scolds, shrugging out of his hoodie and throwing it around her shoulders. "I can hear your teeth chattering - you're lucky it wasn't winter."</p><p>"I know!" Zane snaps, her patience cracking as the jittering aura spreads. "Look, I get it, all right? What do you want me to say? That I'm glad you found me? I am! I'm glad it was you and not someone else, but I don't need the third degree. This was a onetime deal. It won't happen again."</p><p>Shane blinks at her, taken aback.</p><p>"Wait, why are you glad it was me?" He asks. "I kinda got the feeling you didn't like me much."</p><p>"Yeah, well, back at you," she mumbles, and pushes her arms through the sleeves of his hoodie. "You're always so rude I'm surprised you even bothered to check on me."</p><p>Shane snorts laughter. "Like you're any better. Half the folks in town are afraid to talk to you, you know that?"</p><p>Zane stares at him. "What the hell for?"</p><p>"Because they don't know what you're doing here," Shane answers. "Hell, I don't know what you're doing here. You damn sure don't look like any farmer I've ever seen, and you spend your spare time drinking random potions from strange wizards and passing out in the middle of the woods."</p><p>"Why does it matter what I look like or what I do?" Zane sneers as she speaks, but she can't meet his gaze.</p><p>"It matters because there are less than a hundred people in the valley," Shane snaps, "And they run out of things to talk about fast."</p><p>"What, you mean they're afraid to talk to me so they talk about me?" Zane rolls her stiff shoulders, disgusted. The aura is larger now, obscuring most of her peripheral vision on the left side, and the knowledge of what's coming sets her nerves on edge.</p><p>"That's exactly what I mean," Shane answers.</p><p>Zane huffs. "I don't care."</p><p>Shane sighs, running his fingers through his hair in frustration.</p><p>"I think you confuse people," he says at length, as if he is - for once - trying to be diplomatic.</p><p>"Why do they care?" Zane mutters. "My life is none of their business."</p><p>"You're right, but they know who your grandfather was. They want to know you too, but you're kinda making it hard."</p><p>Zane sneers again, eyes narrowed to slits - the aura is all but blinding now, obscuring parts of Shane's face in an undulating rainbow. "Know me? Bullshit. All they want to know is what kinda tragedy brought the weird city girl to the country, because somebody like me wouldn't be here otherwise."</p><p>"I'm not saying they don't wonder why you're here, but that's not -"</p><p>The first nauseating bolt of pain sinks into her left eye and Zane makes a choked sound of frustration in her throat.</p><p>"That why you stopped, then?" she snaps; she knows her fraying temper is a symptom of her impending migraine, but she can't seem to rein it in. "Trying to be a good person and help Farmer McFuckup so I'll spill my life story?</p><p>Shane scowls at her. "For fuck's sake, Zee, no, that's not what I..."</p><p>"Because you can forget it!" She pushes herself to her knees. "I don't owe anyone a goddamn explanation for being here. Grandpa left me the land, I'm living on it, and if I want help, I'll fucking ask for it."</p><p>As soon as she drags herself to her feet, the saturation bleeds out of the night, leaving only the hectic rainbow scribble of the aura. Her stomach drops, and she reels forward.</p><p>"Zane...!"</p><p>Shane catches her around the waist and lowers her to her knees, where she once again grabs at the grass to avoid falling off the earth. A shudder passes through her body and she squeezes her eyes closed; trees dance in the darkness there, interspersed with the alien writing of the Junimo, both visions overlaid by the aura. Nausea kicks her in the gut as a second burst of pain goes off behind her left eye.</p><p>"Just...go." She swallows with an effort. "Go, okay? You can't stand me, you can't stand <span class="u">anybody</span>, so why are you doing this?"</p><p>"Because believe it or not, I can stand you better than I can anyone else," he snaps, winding her long braid around his fist to keep it out of the way as she dry heaves into the grass. "And because saying you'll ask for help when you want it means nothing when you're too goddamn stubborn to realize you need it."</p><p>Zane laughs weakly and spits into the dirt; despite the nausea, nothing will come up.</p><p>"Said the pot to the kettle," she mumbles, sitting back on her heels.</p><p>"Whatever." Shane drops her hair and pulls her arm around his shoulders. "I'm done arguing with you. C'mon, try again. Slower this time."</p><p>Zane says nothing. The aura is receding now, but it leaves behind a sick, violent agony that assaults every aspect of her thought process. She allows him to support her as they walk, but they don't make it far before even the faint light of the moon bores into her eyes like a drill. A weak, breathless curse escapes her, and she flinches, squeezing her eyes against the light and stumbling into Shane.</p><p>"Zee?!" The arm around her waist tightens as he catches her, holding her upright against his body; panic has replaced the anger in his voice. "Hey, should you go to the ER? The ranch isn't far, we can take Marnie's truck."</p><p>"No." Zane slits her eyes, trying to see the way forward. "Just...migraine. Don't talk."</p><p>Shane opens his mouth, then closes it without speaking. As he guides her north toward her property, she grits her teeth against both the pain and the exhaustion it brings, already knowing that they won't make it back in time.</p>
<h1>2.</h1><p>By the time they reach her cabin, Shane is all but carrying her.</p><p>He puts Zane to bed much the same way she had once done for him, except he must find his way through her cabin in the dark. With her whispered directions, he guides her into the bedroom and gets a candle lit - the only light she seems to be able to bear at the moment.</p><p>Zane's detachment disturbs him. There is no doubt she's in an excruciating amount of pain; she can't walk well, and she speaks in halting, disjointed sentences, as if it takes a long time to come up with the correct words for even the simplest actions. In the flickering candlelight she looks like a ghost, her smudged eye makeup deepening the shadows beneath her eyes, her face bloodless and drawn.</p><p>She leans over to open her bedside drawer and almost falls face-first into it. Shane catches her around the waist for the second time that night, easing her onto the bed.</p><p>"What are you looking for?" he whispers, crouching down next to her.</p><p>"Meds." She gestures to the drawer, covering her eyes with one hand. "Two...both pill bottles. It's...nothing...only stuff there. In there. One from...one pill. From both."</p><p>He fishes both orange plastic bottles from the drawer and taps one of each - Imitrex and Vicodin - into his palm, then hands them to her. Before he can ask if she wants him to get her a bottle of water or something like that, Zane tosses the pills into her mouth and dry-swallows them.</p><p>She folds into bed without another word, burying her face into one of her pillows, not even bothering to take off her boots. After a moment of hesitation, Shane takes them off for her before she can get too much dirt on her duvet.</p><p>There is still a bubble of fear in his chest when he steps out of her bedroom. He had intended to walk home after he dropped her off, but the idea that the Vicodin might interact with whatever mystery potion the wizard had given her won't let him leave.</p><p>Not yet, anyway.</p><p>He shuffles his way into the tiny kitchen, feeling for the light switch above the stove. The moment he flicks it on, Mochi leaps onto the counter, chirping and butting his hand.</p><p>"Hush," he mumbles, scratching beneath Mochi's chin. "I'll feed you soon as I figure out where she keeps the...oh."</p><p>Mochi leaps off the counter before Shane finishes speaking, trotting over to his foot bowl and sitting with his tail wrapped around his paws. Stacked up next to the dish are several cans of cat food.</p><p>Shane kneels down next to Mochi's paw-print dinner mat and opens a can of food from the stack, then refills the water dish.</p><p>After stealing a bottle of water from Zane's fridge (he talks himself out of stealing her wine, despite how much he wants a drink) he stretches out across her old couch, telling himself that he'll doze for a few hours and check on Zane afterward. If she's all right, he'll walk home.</p><p>When Mochi comes over and curls up on his chest, he is already fast asleep.</p>
<h1>3.</h1><p>Shane doesn't wake until the next morning.</p><p>A solid knock on the door brings him out of such a deep sleep that he is on his feet before the morning sun can register. Remembering last night's urgent need for quiet, he answers the door just to stop the noise.</p><p>"Keep it down, will ya?" He mutters, covering an enormous yawn with the crook of his arm as he pulls it open. "Zane's trying to...to..."</p><p>
  <em>Oh, shit.</em>
</p><p>Marnie stands at the door, her fist still raised to knock, her eyes wide. Shane stares back at her, realizing with dawning horror how this looks, what Marnie must think.</p><p>Before either he or Marnie can speak, Zane comes shuffling out of her bedroom, her long braided hair draped over her shoulders like a serpent. She takes no note of Shane or Marnie as she meanders toward the coffee pot and begins going through the process of making it with bleary, unfocused eyes.</p><p>The most damning part of the whole situation is that Zane had, at some point, gotten up to take off her clothes. She stands in the kitchen wearing nothing but black boyshort panties and Shane's unzipped hoodie.</p><p>Shane forgets everything that transpired the night before. He even forgets about Marnie. The sight of Zane's body is mesmerizing, and it has nothing to do with the fact that she's mostly naked; it's her tattoos. He has only ever seen the ones on her arms, and as he watches her move, he takes in all the ones he has never seen: tiny silhouetted cats on one ankle; skeletons in graveyard gardens on her calves, their skulls wreathed in crowns of dead flowers; garters of thorned flowers encircling her thighs; branches of some flowering tree extending up from her hips toward her ribcage, reaching toward one another beneath her bellybutton, blooms half-hidden by the band of her underwear; a raven skull between her breasts, yet more flowers frothing from its eye sockets.</p><p>As he is studying this last one, Zane yawns and stretches her arms above her head. Shane looks away in a hurry, shoving Marnie out the door and onto the porch. He steps outside after her, closing the door behind himself as quietly as he can.</p><p>"This isn't what it..."</p><p>"It worried me when you didn't come in last night," Marnie says, cutting him off. "I thought maybe Zane had seen you. Guess I was right. Looks like you saw a great deal of each other."</p><p>"This is not what it looks like!" Shane hisses. "She was - she'd gotten sick in the forest..."</p><p>He stops talking, knowing it's no use just from the way Marnie is looking at him. Any protest on his part is only going to make her believe her own version of events that much more.</p><p>"Well, I'm glad you're safe, at least," she says with a sigh, reaching out to straighten his collar. "Just make sure you stay safe, if you know what I..."</p><p>"Yoba, Marnie, please." Shane barely resists the urge to clap his hands over his ears. "I told you, it's not what it looks like. Just...just go, okay? I'll be home as soon as I make sure she's all right."</p><p>"Whatever you say, Shane." Marnie walks down the porch steps, then pauses, looking back at him with narrowed eyes. "Wait. Did this happen because of your drinking?"</p><p>The question hits him like a dart, the pain small and sharp and deep.</p><p>"Not that it's any of your business, but no." He shoves his unkempt hair back from his forehead. "Because nothing happened."</p><p>Marnie only nods. She turns and walks away without another word, and Shane can't tell what she believes - that he and Zane are a thing, or that he and Zane had an embarrassing one-night stand.</p><p><em>Guess I'll find out eventually</em>, he thinks, irritated. <em>She won't be able to keep it to herself for long.</em></p><p>He sighs. After a moment, he risks a peek in the cabin window. Zane is curled up on her couch (she has zipped up his hoodie, thankfully) looking dead to the world all over again.</p><p>He considers leaving, but once again, something won't let him.</p><p>
  <em>She made coffee. Why go back to sleep?</em>
</p><p>Plenty of people fell back asleep before -</p><p>
  <em>She didn't notice me or Marnie. Didn't notice the door was open.</em>
</p><p>He thinks back to the night before, to the migraine medicine and painkillers, and then he smells something burning and hurries back inside.</p><p>Smoke curls from Zane's ancient coffee percolator; she had put the coffee in, but hadn't added water. He pulls the plug and opens the window above the sink.</p><p>Zane doesn't move. Shane is still debating with himself whether he should wake her when Mochi leaps up onto her chest and begins licking her face. Zane wrinkles her nose and pulls the cat into a hug it accepts without enthusiasm.</p><p>"Moschiiiiii," she mumbles, slurring a little as she kisses his head. "Why'm on th'couch?"</p><p>Mochi wriggles out of her arms and walks across her lower stomach.</p><p>"Ow." Zane sits up, pushing Mochi away. "S'my uterus, Mo, could y'not."</p><p>Mochi meows.</p><p>Zane sighs and rubs her eyes. She sits up, then stands, but when she tries to move away from the couch and back into the kitchen, she stumbles. Shane moves to catch her without thinking, and if he had needed any more evidence that Zane isn't in her right mind, it is her reaction to his presence.</p><p>"H'lo." She looks up at him, her eyes unfocused, the pupils so huge that they obscure almost all the green. "You're warm."</p><p>"You're stoned," he says flatly, trying very hard to ignore the way she leans into him. "And you need to lay down."</p><p>"Sheep need me," she mumbles. "I made coffee."</p><p>"You made a fire hazard." He swallows hard, hyper-aware of the fact that she's half naked and wearing his hoodie. "Zane. C'mon. You're asleep on your feet."</p><p>"How'd y'get in my house?" She asks, allowing him to walk her back to her bedroom.</p><p>"I slept on your couch," he answers, nudging her toward the rumpled double bed. "I was kinda worried something like this might happen. Shouldn't it have worn off some by now?"</p><p>"Had t'take more," she answers.</p><p>"Was it that bad?"</p><p>"Mhm." She sways on her feet, then stumbles backward against Shane's chest; he catches her, doing his best to keep his hands off her bare skin, but he's less worried about her lack of clothing than her state of mind.</p><p>"Look, you're out of it, Zane. Should I call Harvey?"</p><p>"Hn? Fuck no." She yawns again, unperturbed by his touch. "S'just the painkillers. S'gonna wear off. Coffee helps."</p><p>Shane wonders at the wisdom of replacing codeine with caffeine, then remembers that he often replaces food with beer and decides he has no room to criticize.</p><p>"I'll make the coffee," he says.</p><p>"Sheep," Zane mutters, sounding almost petulant. "Need me."</p><p>"I think I can handle food and water for some sheep." He walks her toward the bed. "Zane, go back to sleep. I'll come back by later today and check on you. Provided you don't kill me once you wake up and remember all this."</p><p>Zane settles back into bed, lying on her stomach, and Shane pulls the duvet up to her waist before he even has time to think about letting his eyes wander.</p><p>"Why kill," she murmurs, and it takes Shane a moment to realize that this is a question.</p><p>"Because I'm pretty sure you don't like me," he answers.</p><p>
  <em>And you're definitely not gonna like the latest town gossip.</em>
</p><p>"Nah." Zane snuggles against a pillow. "Like you a lot. 'Specially the hoodie. Wanna keep it."</p><p>Shane, taken aback, stumbles over his words. "W-wait, what are you - I mean, you're just..."</p><p>"I'm stoned off m'gourd," she mumbles, already beginning to doze. "Gonna say I don't remember, but I will. Sorry now for bein' bitchy later."</p><p>Before he can gather enough brain cells to speak, Zane's breathing evens out and she's asleep again.</p><p>Bewildered, Shane backs out of her bedroom and pulls the door just shy of closed. After making coffee, he gives Mochi his breakfast and leaves the cabin to check out the livestock.</p><p>Zane keeps two goats (not sheep, but given that she'd grown up on asphalt and isn't in her right mind, he's not surprised at the slip up), and four chickens. The chickens are much more understanding about their late breakfast than the goats, which bleat and huff at him as he tosses hay across their feeding trough. One of them rams its head against his ass as he leaves the barn, as if trying to hurry him on his way.</p><p>Shane is more than glad to leave. His back is protesting his decision to handle a pitchfork after sleeping on a worn out, lumpy sofa, and all he wants is a hot shower and a nap.</p>
<h1>4.</h1><p>Shane goes home, showers, and throws himself down across his own bed to take a much needed nap. At some point Jas climbs into bed next to him, and he wakes with her curled against his back.</p><p>He rolls out of bed with care, trying not to wake her, but as he pulls a throw blanket up to her chin, she blinks her eyes open. She doesn't speak, only tilts her head.</p><p>"Hey honey. I gotta go do something real quick," he says, "But you can stay right here, okay?"</p><p>Jas nods, then whispers, "Are you going to see Miss Zane?"</p><p>"She's sick," he says. "I'm going to check on her."</p><p>"Is she your girlfriend?"</p><p>"No, honey. Do me a favor and don't listen when Marnie talks about that kind of stuff, okay?"</p><p>"Okay." Jas clutches the blanket a little. Shane leans down and kisses her forehead.</p><p>As he kneels down to tie his sneakers, she speaks again.</p><p>"It'd be okay. If she was, I mean. Your girlfriend."</p><p>Shane snorts laughter. "Thanks for the permission, kid."</p><p>"She's a little scary," Jas admits. "She's got pretty rings in her face, but Vincent said she had to push needles through her lips and nose and eyebrows and stuff to put them there."</p><p>"Well, she did," Shane says, "But they do the same thing to your ears, honey."</p><p>Jas considers this, then nods. "Vincent made it sound weird, but it isn't."</p><p>"Not really, no."</p><p>"She's got pretty flowers all over her too," Jas continues. "I don't like the skulls as much, but I think I wouldn't mind having flowers all over me."</p><p>"Let's give that a few years, okay?" Shane laughs softly, wondering what Zane would make of this assessment. "Keep sleeping if you want. Or you can play games. I'll be home tonight, promise."</p><p>"Kay."</p><p>To his surprise, he meets Zane at her property line. He opens his mouth to speak but as soon as she catches sight of him she freezes, her face turning a brilliant scarlet.</p><p>"Are you feeling better?" He asks, unsure what he should do - if he should tell her what Marnie saw.</p><p>What he saw, for that matter.</p><p>Zane nods. It's almost mechanical.</p><p>"Um. I, um. It's - this is your - I mean, uh. Thank you. For...um. Not letting me choke on my own vomit in the forest. Or...something?"</p><p>Her blush deepens. She shoves a blue bundle at him, then mumbles something that might be <em>Thanksbye </em>before sprinting back toward her farmhouse.</p><p>Shane unfolds the bundle to find his hoodie, although he takes a few seconds to recognize it. Zane has repaired most of the smaller holes and patched the two biggest ones with fleece in a near-identical shade of blue. She has even serge-stitched around the ragged thumbholes he'd worn into the cuffs to keep them from unraveling.</p><p>It also smells like her.</p><p>Shane lifts his head, watching her disappear into the trees with a faint smile on his face.</p><p>Her hair is still in the braid.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>
  <span class="big">If you want to be notified when this series updates, please click <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/series/1936729">here</a> and hit the 'subscribe' button!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span class="big">You can find more about me <a href="https://saiyanshewolf.carrd.co">here</a>.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span class="big">If you don't know what a migraine visual aura looks like, <a href="https://youtu.be/qVFIcF9lyk8">this</a> video is a good approximation, at least in terms of my personal experience.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span class="big">I've also drawn <a href="https://saiyanshewolf.tumblr.com/tagged/sdv-farmer">Zane</a> a few times.</span>
</p></blockquote></div></div>
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